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A41988
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An account of the Jesuites life and doctrine by M.G.
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M. G. (Martin Grene), 1616-1667.
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1661
(1661)
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Wing G1825; ESTC R12657
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58,242
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215
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With this thought he looked about for such as might be fit for his design and whilst he was a Student at Paris he won to himself nine others all men of eminent vertue and learning among them one was Francis Xaverius With these he laid the foundation of a Religious order which he would have named the Society of Jesus The reason of this name was not any thing else then that all his order should ever remember that as they were by the grace of Christ Jesus called to this course of life so they ought alwayes to look on Jesus and endeavour to conforme themselves as much as possibly might be to the life of Jesus this imitation being that which St. Ignatius had prefixed himself as the best means to attain to his sinal end of Gods greater Glory After therefore that he and his Companions had given many singular proofs of their vertue at length Pope Paul the third in the year 1540 erected the society into a Relgious order which he and his successours the subsequent Popes often confirmed and endowed with many priviledges under the name of the society of Jesus The end of this society may sufficiently appear out of what I have said and it is se down by St. Ignatius in these words related in sum Constit Finis hujus societatis est non solum saluti perfectioni propriarum animarum cum divina gratia vacare sed cum eadem impense in salutem perfectionem proximorum incumbere The end of this society is not only to attend with the divine grace to the salvation and perfection of our owne soules but also with the same divine grace to labour earnestly for the salvation and perfection of our neighbour This is the end of the society which I suppose no body can in reason except against For what more laudable then to endeavour Gods greater glory and that in the Salvation of souls It was this that God aimed at in the creation of this all this Christ looked at in the whole course of his life and in his precious death this is the end of the Gospel this mans sole good without this nothing is good and in this is all good Sin and Damnation are the worst of evils which the Devil and those that co-operate with him lead men unto on the contrary vertue and Salvation are the greatest Goods which Christ and those that joyn their labours with his do lead unto Certainly he that will complain of the Jesuits for consecrating their labours to the good and Salvation of their neighbours must confess that he knoweth not what the name of vertue means he must allow that he is an enemy of reason and grant that he hath renounced his own nature and under the shape of a Man is become a Wolf or Tygre or even an incarnate Devil there being none but the Devil that hareth the Salvation of mankind and all those that endeavour to co-operate with Christ to that end When I say co-operate with Christ no man must be scandalized as at an insolent term It is a word ordinarily used by those who would express the nature and dignity of an Apostolical Vocation So Richardus a S. Victore saith Nescio an majus bonum possit homini a Deo conferri quam ut per ejus obsequium alii consequantur salutem si tamen Deo co-operentur ex charitate I know not whether God bestow any thing greater on man than that others by his means obtain Salvation if notwithstanding he co-operate with God out of Charity So also doth St. Dionyse express himself cap. 3. Caelest Hierarchiae in these words Omnium Dominus est Dei co-operatorem fieri it is the most divine work that man can do to co-operate with God he speaketh of labouring for the good of Souls and cireth those words of St. Paul 1 Cor. 3. Dei adjutores sumus We are the Co-adjutours of Almighty God S. Paul meant not that God needeth our help but that he is pleased to use the help of men and make one the instrument of the Salvation of others which St. Dionyse calleth the most divine work that man can do and Hugo de S. Victore the greatest gift of God All this I conceive maketh it clear that no man can with reason reprehend the aim and end of the Society It remaineth therefore that we see whether the Society useth convenient means to attain this end for if the end be good and the means to attain that end be also good it will follow that the whole institute is good and not only irreprehensible but also laudable CAP. II. By what means the Society endeavoureth to make their own fit Instruments for their end TWO things therefore are to be treated of for to shew what means the Society useth for to compass her end First how the subjects of the Society are trained up to be made fit Instruments for the Glory of God in the conversion of Souls And secondly when we have seen how they endeavor to perfect themselves we are farther to observe what it is they do for the good of their neighbour The first of these two things we will do in this chapter the second in the ensuing chapter S. Ignatius then observed that all the miseries in which the Souls of men are involved spring chiefly from two fountains ignorance and vice Ignorance like Ice freezeth up the Soul and benummeth it into a dull stupidity And as Ice doth easily thaw into water of which it is made and water again easily freezeth into Ice so ignorance easily dissolves into vice and vice as easily congeals into ignorance and insensibility specially of spiritual and supernatural things It was ignorance therefore and vice they were to war against who would endeavour the cure of Souls and in consequence to this they were to be armed with vertue and learning Vertue was the chief for without true and solid vertue they could never hope that God would make them instruments of so high a work as the conversion of Souls nor could they be fit to move others to vertue unless their words were seconded by their works and their exemplar life made good their Pulpit-discourses it being most certain which the Golden Orator said that the best Syllogism is the Preachers life Yet though vertue were the chief agent she was not to be ingaged without learning for her second For vertue without learning would not have authority enough to controll malepert spirits and might perhaps degenerate into zeal without discretion and so with a good meaning lead to destruction Both vertue therefore and learning were necessary for those who should make it their aim by rooting out vice and ignorance to work the desired good of Souls Now how S. Ignatius did lay the foundations which might bring up all that should follow Christ in the Society to vertue and learning we may see by what is set down in the Constitutions of the Society and is daily practised by the Jesuits As I shall
His first thought by which he steered all his actions and which seemed as a beacon for all the course of his life was a profound knowledg of his end In that divine light which God streamed upon him in his daily contemplations he clearly saw how the infinite goodness of God according to his everlasting Councels in the beginning of time drew the whole world out of nothing and created man for no other end then to love and serve his Lord and Creator in this life and afterwards to enjoy him in perpetuall eternities From this thought he drew a resolution to make this noble end of his the measure of all his actions the first and last of all his thoughts and the onely aim of all his desires To this his understanding to this his memory to this his will to this his whole soul was so totally applied that he was even absorpt in this thought of seeking his last end that is his God And as the love of God is of all things imaginable the most active and most noble he could not endure to bestow himself sparingly on God His design therefore was to do whatsoever he could imagine to be most advantageous to forward him towards his end and most to the increase of the honour and Glory of God Hence proceeded that motto of his which was the first rule that he ever prefixed himself Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam To the greater Honour of God By this motto or devise he intended two things The first was that whensoever any thing came into deliberation he was to choose not that which was most for his ease or profit or honour but that which consulting with reasons of Eternity might appear most for the Honour and Glory of God The other thing intended by him in this devise was that he was to make account that he was never to rest in this World never to think he had done enough but still to increase and go on ad majorem to the greater and still greater glory of God by every good action enflaming his desires to do yet better and more for Gods honour So was this first thought of his the knowledge of his end like the Primum Mobile in the Heavens the Superiour Orbe which with his motion sets all the inferiour Orbes a going it was like the spring to the Watch of his Life which being once well wound up made all the Wheels of his several actions go well and the Index of his good intention point right every moment of his life it was like the Sun which gave Light Vigour and life to all the Sphere of employments which he ever undertook After then that he was well fixed and radicated in this first thought and had made such resolutions as did flow from it his next solicitude was by what means he should best compass this end in the perfectest manner that he could imagine which might tend most to the glory of God Here he reflected that certainly the best way to find God was to follow Christ and the nearer he came to Christ the nearer he judged himself to be to the design he had laid of consecrating all his life to Gods greater glory This then was his second thought out of which he drew this resolution to take Christ for his pattern and mould all his actions on the example which he should see in Christ whose Divinity and humanity were to be unto him the two Tables of the Law of the highest perfection Meditating therefore daily on the life of Christ he endeavoured alwayes to copy out in action something of that which he saw in contemplation The humility of Christ the meekness the modesty the temperance the mercy the obedience the fortitude were all as so many lessons which he studied to get by heart And in all he profited so well that he left to posterity admirable examples so that he may justly say with the Apostle imitatores mei estote sicut ego Christi Imitate you me as I have imitated Christ But above all he observed and admired the immense charity of Christ that could make him devest himself of his own glory and undergo a painfull life and death for no other boon but the good of Souls This he no sooner observed but that he resolved to joyn his labours with the labours of his Redeemer and as far as humane frailty would give him leave to co-operate with Christ for the Salvation of Souls Here were then the two Fundamentall thoughts which were like the two poles on which all the life of this great Saint was turned The first he drew from the consideration of his Creation the second from looking on his Redemption the first inflamed him with a zeal of Gods greater glory the second shewed him that this aim of Gods great glory must determine in the imitation of Christ and co-operating with him for the good of souls Having then resolved on these two thoughts and set them down as rules for his future life there occurred to his mind two main difficulties First he observed how very unfit he was to think of setting on the conversion of souls He had been trained up from his Infancy in the Court and the Camp two schools where the Gospel is little thought on Yet without a good understanding of the Gospel to be got with long study he saw he could neither have authority with others nor security for himself The mysteries of faith are obscure and hard and it were presumption to adventure to explicate those mysteries without having first learnt them well And he had not yet read his Accidents What should he do Being above thirty years old he begins the first rudiments with little children and goeth on to the end of Divinity Labour and constancy carried him through that which no man would easily have ventured on specially in the circumstances he was in For having already made a resolution of voluntary poverty he was forced to beg his bread from door to door he continued still his servent prayer and fast and other mortifications and oftentimes interrupted his studies with acts of Charity yet at length with above ten years labour he surmounted the difficulty and got to such a pitch in learning as might give him both security in handling Divine mysteries and authority The other difficulty in the enterprise of the conversion of souls was greater and not to be overcome by one Man His zeal compassed all the universe he desired to co-operate with Christ for the Salvation of Souls in all the quarters of the World and if possible in all ages to come but being alone he could not do this he was confined to one place and one life of a short and uncertain durance Therefore he resolved to communicate his desires with such as God should inspire to joyn with him and to erect an Order of Religious men which should do that alwayes and every where which alone he could do but in one place and for the date of only one life